Sandy King
Ayisha “Sandy” King (2000-2001)
Renee Hodson
Episodes: 2846–2860, 2936–2964
Parents: Simon & Maureen King
Child: Bella Rose King
Occupation: Student
Will Smith was extremely bemused when he came home and found a strange girl sleeping on his bed but made no attempt to disturb her and she slipped away before they could speak. He ran into her on the beach later on when he was doing community service, where she referred to herself as “sandy”, seemingly a description more than a name. She walked away in the middle of the litter picking session, with the supervisor telling Will that she wasn’t actually part of the detail.
Will continued to see her but she refused to tell him how to contact her or give any name other than Sandy. Will realised she had taken his poetry book but when he confronted her she was evasive, merely saying that she was reading a story about a guy in love with someone called Gypsy. However, when he returned home, he found the book on his bed. When Nick couldn’t find his Discman, Will accused Sandy of taking it but she replied that she didn’t steal from friends. Will then discovered that Nick had found the Discman and apologised to her.
Sandy turned up at Will’s house during the night with an injured hand and asked to stay there for the night. Next morning, Will learned that someone had broken into a holiday house and been attacked by a guard dog, realising it was Sandy. He found her climbing through the window of a nearby house, where she cryptically told him nothing could happen to her there. When he learned the police had heard of the break-in, Will went to warn her but she simply waited and let Joel in when he arrived, explaining she was Ayisha King and the house belonged to her father Simon, a famous film score composer, and his wife Maureen. She was meant to be at boarding school in the city but had forged a letter from her parents discontinuing her education to see how long it would take them to notice she was missing—it had been three weeks. The neighbouring house belonged to the Chilbys, another set of absentee parents whose eleven-year-old daughter Nicola had been sent to the same school. Joel took her down the station to make a statement and to contact her parents.
Three months later, Sandy turned up at the drop-in centre, calling herself Jenny Carter. Shelley and Dani found she had gone into premature labour and helped deliver a baby girl. However, Sandy slipped away after the ambulance people arrived. She again went to Will, who found her in his room. Having heard about what had happened at the drop-in centre and realising she was the girl in question, he contacted Shelley and they made an attempt to convince Sandy to come to the hospital with them. Sandy slipped away again but then went to the hospital herself to see her daughter, who she named Bella Rose.
It transpired that Sandy had been staying with her grandparents but hadn’t told anyone in her family about her pregnancy. She was unhappy when Will brought Dani with him to visit her, and after they’d gone, admitted to Bella Rose that she wished Will was her father. Shelley came to see her but Sandy refused to contact her parents, her grandparents or Bella Rose’s father. She claimed there was someone else who would look after them but became evasive when Shelley asked if it was Will.
By now, she seemed to think of herself as Sandy, introducing herself as such when she met Sam Marshall, who was also in hospital after a minor car accident. She left him to look after Bella Rose while she went to the bathroom, with Will and Hayley surprised to see them together. She asked Shelley to find her somewhere to live, assuming she could live on a single parent’s allowance. Shelley convinced her to contact her grandparents but they wanted nothing to do with her. She elected to take a flat she had been offered in Yabbie Creek and asked Hayley to pass on a message to Sam, who had gone to Queensland but had promised to call. However, she was left disenchanted when Hayley told her about how Sam had used and then dumped her.
Nevertheless, when Sam returned to Summer Bay, he was determined to help Sandy, getting her address from Jade. He turned up at the flat to find her with a black eye. She sent him away but he returned and insisted on waiting with her. Sandy admitted she was back with Warren, Bella Rose’s father, who was only there because it was cheap and seemed to spend all his time in the pub or drinking at home. When Warren turned up in an aggressive mood, Sam told him to leave, then took Sandy and Bella Rose back to Summer Bay to stay with him and Donald, determined to use the insurance money from his share of the Diner to set them up somewhere.
Sam arranged a place for them in the city, assuring Sandy that even if they didn’t love each other, they both wanted what was best for Bella Rose. Sandy remained unsure and, when Donald suggested she might be asking too much of Sam, she fled to the drop-in centre. Donald convinced her to go back and see Sam, who reassured her of his commitment. She asked if it was true they didn’t love each other and they kissed for the first time, departing for the city as a couple. Sandy was mentioned when Sam visited Summer Bay the following year, with it said that they were still together and she was going to uni. It was again confirmed that they were still together on Sam’s return to the bay in 2005.